Introduction

This introduction describes the context in which Gatekeeping Success emerges. As use of new media technologies grew in the late aughts, many broader political, economic, and cultural shifts were happening in America at the same time. While tensions arose over the relationship between gender, labor, and media technologies, this chapter illustrates that such debates are neither new, nor unique to the contemporary era. The author contextualizes the book’s arguments regarding celebrity within a broader history of capitalism and patriarchal exploitation. The chapter also discusses the author’s own lived experiences working as a casting associate and playing a key role in the gatekeeping system of media production. This provides the theoretical basis on which the remaining analyses build and the chapter concludes by describing the methodology and structure of the book.